a. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to vehicle door movement control devices, and, more particularly, to a mechanism for vehicle rear door articulation and sliding, for example, in a pickup truck, with the mechanism permitting opening and closing of a rear door with or without a front door being opened.
b. Description of Related Art
As is known in the art, automobile designs are governed by a variety of ergonomic and operational factors. For doors and other such components, the design is generally based on ergonomic factors such as exterior appearance, and the location and visibility of hinges, latches and adjacent components, and operational factors such as the ingress/egress opening provided, the maximum clearance required for opening/closing a door, and crash performance.
For pickup trucks, sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and other such vehicles which are designed to accommodate ingress/egress of several passengers and also provide means for transport of large goods, the ingress/egress opening and maximum clearance required for opening/closing a door can be of particular importance. For example, a typical pickup truck having front and back driver/passenger doors may include a C-pillar mounted rear door which pivots relative to the C-pillar in a similar manner as the A-pillar mounted front door to thus provide a relatively large and unobstructed ingress/egress opening without the intermediate B-pillar. Due to the large size of a typical pickup truck, driver/passenger ingress/egress can become particularly restrictive, if not impossible, if a vehicle is parked adjacent to the truck and is sufficiently close to prevent a person from boarding or loading to enter the area between the front and rear doors (when open), invariably known as parking lot entrapment.
In an effort to address such parking lot entrapment concerns a host of sliding or articulating rear door designs, such as the articulating rear door design disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,447,054 to Pietryga, have been proposed.
Specifically, referring to FIGS. 2-7 of Pietryga, Pietryga discloses access door (18) connected to the body of vehicle (10) by hinge assembly (30) and arm assembly (32). Arm assembly (32) includes bracket (75) that attaches to body (22) and bracket (76) that attaches to access door (18). Brackets (75, 76) are each pivotally connected to arms (77, 78) by pins to form a four-bar linkage system. During opening movement of access door (18), pivot axis (89) moves along arc (93) about pivot axis (88), placing access door (18) at a position along the side of the exterior of body (22) substantially behind opening (19).
Thus while hinge assembly (30) and arm assembly (32) of Pietryga provide for articulating movement of access door (18), as readily apparent from FIGS. 2 and 7, hinge/arm assembly (30, 32) is readily visible when door (18) is open as it is required to be located generally centrally of opening (19). Referring to FIGS. 4-6, hinge/arm assembly (30, 32) is also relatively complex in design, and requires substantial modification of the vehicle structure for adequate operation thereof. Moreover, although hinge/arm assembly (30, 32) allows for articulated movement of door (18) adjacent vehicle body (22), due to the pivotal movement required of hinge/arm assembly (30, 32), the size of door (18) and thus opening (19) are restricted.
It would therefore be of benefit to provide a mechanism for permitting opening and closing of a rear door with or without a front door being opened, with the mechanism having limited visibility for thus minimally altering the overall appearance of a vehicle. It would also be of benefit to provide a mechanism which allows for articulated movement of a vehicle door adjacent the vehicle body, regardless of the size of the door, for thus providing a maximum ingress/egress opening. Yet further, it would also be of benefit to provide a mechanism which includes a minimal number of components for facilitating manufacture, assembly and operation of the overall mechanism and adjacent components.